MADAM, I have long since given up expecting cyclists not to ride on the pavement, but what I would like to see is compulsory bicycle bells. I think they are a legal requirement but this doesn't seem to be enforced, and it should be, for everyone's safety.

I have acute hearing, but even so, have many times been startled, while walking home carrying bags of shopping, by a cyclist coming out of the blue and riding past me with no warning. No-one walks in an exact straight line, and if I had deviated just a fraction at that moment, there would be a nasty incident.

And it would not just be to me - the chances are that the cyclist would come off his/her bike and land in the road, probably in the path of traffic. (It's usually the Walford Road where this happens to me).

I wish that the danger of this practice could be brought home to them and that the use of a bell is made compulsory. I'm fit and healthy, but elderly and frail people are in more danger.

J?H?Setchfield, Ross